JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Lately, 76-year-old Gerard Van de Werken has been hitting the gym.
GERARD VAN DE WERKEN: I have a personal trainer (laughter), and I'm doing cardio just to get the stamina in (laughter).
SUMMERS: Van de Werken is a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, Austin, a nonprofit housing organization. He said he needs to get in shape for a blitz build. The organization will build 25 houses in one week, and Van de Werken wants to be a part of it.
VAN DE WERKEN: I'm not so worried about how to build the house. It's just making sure that I'm physically strong enough to be out there leading the folks to help build this house.
SUMMERS: This will not be his first home.
VAN DE WERKEN: Well, I sort of semiretired last year after 50 homes.
SUMMERS: Every spring and fall for decades, Van de Werken has spent most Saturdays building homes. As part of our series Here To Help, he described his commitment, starting with his first build on 13th Street in Austin.
VAN DE WERKEN: They asked me to be the site leader. At that time, I didn't really have a team. And so seven volunteers showed up, and we formed a team, and for the last 25 years, we have built 50 homes. Yeah, the first one, I had no clue what I was doing. And I still chuckle - there's one experience there. I'll say there's Gino (ph), and we were sheetrocking, and none of us ever sheetrocked. So we were sheetrocking. And he had to cut that piece of sheetrock seven times (laughter). We built community. We enjoyed each other, and we laughed at each other because we made so many mistakes and - but, you know, we built a beautiful home.
SUMMERS: Van de Werken says, by the 10th house, the work became understandable and the learning curve was easier.
VAN DE WERKEN: The one thing people understood about this team was, if you came out to volunteer at our site and you're going to - willing to give up your Saturday or your time, you're going to actually do something. And if you want to learn something, we'll teach that, too. There was a young lady in one of the houses. She was sort of kind of hesitant. And so I went and asked her, I says, have you ever done a Ramset? And she says, what is that? And so I says, well, this is this instrument that you shoot nails into the concrete to hold the walls up. But my boyfriend won't let me do any of this kind of work. That's not girly work. She started around 9 o'clock, and we couldn't take that instrument out of her hand for the rest of the day. She was having a blast. And I heard her on the phone, not meaning to hear her, but she says, don't you ever tell me I can't do anything. So my goal was, if you come out, I empower anybody to want to do anything.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
VAN DE WERKEN: I was called the crier (laughter). Every dedication, I speak and I shed tears because, well, most people didn't realize that I was an immigrant. I came to America many, many years ago. I was born in Jakarta, Indonesia. I'm basically Americanized, but (laughter) to come to America at that time, there was a helping hand to get us here. And so I was very appreciative of that extending hand. So I was willing to give back. And so it just moves me to see that there are people in this world that understands that you can't get through life without a helping hand.
SUMMERS: Gerard Van de Werken volunteers with the nonprofit housing organization Habitat for Humanity, Austin. You can find more stories of volunteerism in America at npr.org/heretohelp.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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